(photo above) publicly called for an "assessment of the Accords of
March 23, 2009" between the DRC government and the Rwandan-made CNDP,
the political and militia outfit that has since hatched M23.
Paluku then posted his statement on his blog.
A statement that baffled the whole nation, and to which M23 leaders
responded with jeers of contempt.
Then, last Saturday, in a torpid interview he gave to a pool of
Kinshasa journos, President Joseph Kabila talked about the new
three-pronged approach of his government to resolve the crisis in
eastern DRC: combined diplomatic, political, and military efforts.
Kinois were quick to seize on the fact that of those three qualifiers,
two--"diplomatic" and "political"--conspicuously preceded the military
option.
They saw this as a sure sign that the government is about to sit down
one more time with the M23 insurgents and let them once more rule vast
swaths of North Kivu as a rogue state within a failed state.
Or, as someone put it to me, the government is considering to let M23
be Rwanda's toggle on the DRC.
A confirmation of the worst nightmares contained in the "Balkanization
Conspiracy Theories" concocted in the Congo.
The most extreme of those conspiracy theories allege that some in top
circles of the DRC government are actually aiding and abetting
Rwanda's designs on getting the Kivus secede from the Congo.
In its attempt to counter this kind of rumors, the DRC government,
through its spokesperson, Media Minister Lambert Mende, released
yesterday a long-winded statement strewn with tortuous and, at times,
illogical arguments that further worsen the standing of the government
in the eyes of denizens.
Insisting that the DRC is now opting for Kabila's novel approach--what
Mende calls a "triptych panel" as in painting or sculpture (no
kidding!)--the wordy statement says, among many other things:
"The Government is positively considering the request by the North
Kivu Governor for an assessment of the peace accord of March 23, 2009
signed by the government and the national armed groups that existed in
the Kivus.
"A lot of things are being said about this assessment on the rumor
mode, which is the weapon of predilection of destabilization
specialists.
"The agitation of the negative forces of M23 around the perspective of
an assessment, through an international mechanism, of the 2009
agreement, is the product of the psychological warfare that the
enemies of peace have never ceased to wage against the Congolese
people.
"Actually, Governor Paluku's proposals are within the framework of the
implementation of the Addis Ababa Declaration of July 15, 2012, signed
by 11 Heads of States, members of the International Conference on the
Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), who had gathered in Extraordinary Summit
on the security situation of eastern DRC.
"At Point 11 of the decisions taken at the Addis Ababa Summit, you can
read the following:
" '[We hereby decide] setting up immediately a follow-up mechanism
through the reactivation of the team of special envoys composed of His
Excellency Benjamin Mpaka and His Excellency Olusegun Obasandjo to
find out the deeper causes of conflicts in eastern DRC and thus
propose a durable solution. [We urge] the UN Secretary General to
support this initiative.'
"This decision by the Heads of States is in line with the provisions
of Article 15 Paragraph 2 of the 2009 accord, which provides for the
constitution of such an international follow-up committee."
Well, it's as if the DRC is going upstairs backwards.
It's already established that M23 is a Rwandan creation and attempting
at this stage of the game to "find out the deeper causes of conflicts"
in eastern DRC amounts to dismantling the recent string of diplomatic
victories achieved by Kinshasa.
It also strengthens the position of Rwanda whose Foreign Minister
recently stated in Nairobi that Kinshasa doesn't have a clue of what's
happening in eastern DRC.
What's more, the statement by the DRC government comes at a juncture
where the country's military situation in the ongoing war is
perilously tenuous--what with the FARDC troops being bashed by M23 and
the IDPs being left to fend for themselves.
As things stand right now, despite all the diplomatic setbacks and
international criticisms his country has been weathering of late,
President Paul Kagame should pop the cork on that bottle of expensive
champagne and celebrate.
For Kagame has achieved the main objective of his new war on the Congo.
As Baron Carl von Clausewitz has it: "War is [...] an act of force to
compel our enemy to do our will."
And Kinshasa seems to be doing the bidding of Kigali.
***
PHOTO: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi
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